Tampa Bay's largest financial services firm is among several required by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to pay back $30 million to customers for mutual fund sales overcharges in some charitable and retirement accounts.
Raymond James & Associates and Raymond James Financial Services, which is headquartered in St. Petersburg, were ordered Monday, along with Wells Fargo Advisors, Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network and LPL Financial, to pay back affected customers. Raymond James was ordered to pay customers $8.7 million in restitution, according to a news release from FINRA. Wells Fargo will pay $15 million, and LPL will pay $6.3 million and other fees.
Raymond James and the other firms failed to supervise the sale of mutual funds that offered sales charge waivers, FINRA's ruling states. The financial companies relied on financial advisers to waive charges specifically for retirement and eligible charitable accounts without offering proper information and training.
The firms did not waive sales charges on more than 50,000 accounts at various times since at least July 2009.
Wells Fargo, Raymond James and LPL neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to FINRA's findings.
"As noted by FINRA, Raymond James discovered the issue internally, proactively initiated client refunds and self-reported the findings to FINRA. Given the firm's extraordinary cooperation, FINRA waived any fines which would have otherwise been assessed. We are pleased to have the issue resolved," said Steve Hollister, a spokesman with Raymond James Financial.
Justine Griffin can be reached at jgriffin@tampabay.com. Follow @SunBizGriffin.